


The Only Date Where You Can Make Money

by Far_Beyond_The_Universe



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling, Cute Date, Established boyfriends, Happy Birthday Keith, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Kick, Lance is a good boyfriend, M/M, They love each other, glowing rocks, gold panning, keith is a sleepy boyfriend, klance, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 13:25:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16598756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Far_Beyond_The_Universe/pseuds/Far_Beyond_The_Universe
Summary: Lance takes Keith on an early-Birthday date to go panning for gold in space.





	The Only Date Where You Can Make Money

**Author's Note:**

> Okay quick story quick story: So I was sitting in the library working on homework and my dear friend starts laughing. Apparently they’ve been looking through a list of cute date ideas to get some inspo for a fic they’re gonna write (not VLD related… someday i will convert them) and apparently number 113 or something like that on this list of 130+ is “Panning for Gold: it’s the only date where you can make money” and we’re dying because lol it’s 1) a great date idea and 2) super stupid and silly also. BUT they challenged me to write it into a Klance fic and me, having wanted to write a Keith birthday fic but not having an idea for a cute date for them to go on and also having missed his birthday had just let the idea go, was all for it.

“Keith… Keeeeiiiith,” Lance hissed.

Keith turned over and glanced at the time. He hadn’t even been sleeping for three hours so he ignored his boyfriend and pulled the covers up to keep the light out of his eyes.

“Keeeeiiiith I know you’re awake,” Lance leaned into him and started tickling.

“Ugh, Lance,” Keith sleepily pushed his boyfriend away. Normally he liked having Lance’s face close to his but at five in the morning it wasn’t really the view he wanted. He’d much rather be looking at the back of his eyelids and dead asleep.

“Happy birthday, Keith. Wake up!”

“Lance, my birthday… Did you actually forget?” This wakes him up because Lance forgetting his birthday is so out of character. His boyfriend remembered pretty much every little detail especially when it came to sentimental things like birthdays. 

“Of course not, silly, I just wanted to be the first to celebrate it with you.”

“So… we’re celebrating a day early?” And now Keith is sitting up.

Lance’s smile is as wide and as bright as the moon. “Everyone wanted to surprise you and show up in your room at midnight tomorrow—pretend you’re still surprised, please—with gifts and such but I really wanted to gift you an experience—and no, I know that look, I’m not talking about birthday sex—and I wanted to give it to you before anyone else could give you anything.”

Keith blinked. And blinked again. He wasn’t sure if it was endearing what Lance was doing or not, but, hell, it was definitely cute. “So, no birthday sex?”

Lance punched him in the shoulder gently, “Of course there will be birthday sex but I figure we’d save that until after cake tomorrow. Besides! We need to get going now if we’re going to make it in time.”

“In time?” But Keith let Lance pull him out of bed.

“Get dressed and meet me in the hanger.” Lance scurried out and then ducked his head back in through the door, “And be stealthy about it, my plan is to be back before anyone misses us.”

…

Lance ushered Keith into one of the smaller ships they kept for recon. It fit two people snugly and Lance had apparently padded the insides with blankets and pillows. It was incredibly comfortable and Keith lowered himself into a particularly plush corner, yawning. He might actually fall asleep on the ship…

“How long have you been awake?”

Lance looked up from the dashboard where he was plugging their coordinates in. “Hmmm. To be honest? I haven’t actually gone to sleep yet.”

“Ugh,” Keith gurgled. He’d never been one for all-nighters. “But doesn’t it seem so much better to come over here and nap?” He held his arms out for Lance to climb into.

Lance chuckled, finished what he was doing, and let the ship boot up auto pilot and begin their journey. “I’m too excited to sleep,” but he crawled into Keith’s warmth anyways. “Besides, we’re not going far at all.”

Keith pulled Lance close to his chest, arms around his waist. Lance’s hands were cold and he slipped them under the back of Keith’s shirt. Neither of them moved, content to just sit and cuddle, and Keith felt himself drifting off to the sound of his boyfriend’s heartbeat.

And then Lance was waking him up again, shaking Keith gently by the shoulders.

“Wha—what time is it?” Keith wasn’t really ready to let Lance go yet but he was extricating himself from the cuddle-sphere.

“It hasn’t even been half an hour. Now, come on, we’re here. Come on, babe,” Lance was helping Keith to his feet. “I promise, when we get back after your gift we can cuddle all day if you want. This is basically your birthday 0.5 so the day is all for you.”

“If it was all for me we wouldn’t be awake at this hour.”

“I love you too, now, come on,” Lance opened the door and pulled Keith out.

The sun was rising at that very moment and Keith was blinded. He covered his eyes with his free hand—Lance was happily holding his other—and when he finally lowered them he saw that they appeared to be at the base of some mountains. Desert stretched off into one direction, though the sand was much lighter than earth sand; on the other end the mountain range rose up, peaked with what appeared to be snow. And weaving down the mountain, running right past them, was a rushing stream.

Except instead of clear blue like water tended to be, this was a dazzling silver, which was perhaps by Keith had been so blinded upon entering the alien planet.

They weren’t in their paladin armor so the air was clearly safe to breath and it was fresh. In fact, it felt a lot like breathing in earth air. Besides the subtle difference in the sand and the silver water the planet was one of the closest to earth in appearance that they had been to.

“Do you like it?” Lance asked carefully, judging his boyfriend’s reaction with caution.

Keith smiled and squeezed Lance’s hand, pulling them closer together. “It’s beautiful.”

And really, it was such a comfort to be here. It reminded him of living in the desert, which, while it had been a lonely time, had also been incredibly peaceful. He’d never felt comfortable around a lot of people, and while he didn’t miss earth the way that Lance and Hunk did, there was something innately comfortable about his home planet.

“Alright time for your present!” Lance ducked back into the ship quickly and came out again with two green pans about the size of frisbees. 

“I thought this planet was my gift?”

“I told you I wanted to gift you an experience. And while this planet is absolutely gorgeous, and I was hoping you would really like it, Allura mentioned that in this river there’s a special type of mineral that, apparently, can be found the same way that people pan for gold.”

Keith laughed, “Wait, you’re serious? There’s gold in this river?”

“Not gold; it’s called Heleorite. And it’s actually pretty cool. Apparently it lights up and glows under certain circumstances.” Lance handed Keith one of the pans.

“Okay, I’ll be honest, I’ve never panned for gold in my life,” Keith admitted.

“It’s pretty easy; there’s this amusement park near where my brother lives and sometimes I take my niece and nephew. It’s wild west themed so one of the attractions is panning for gold.”

Keith knelt next to Lance by the river. Where the water hit the sides of the bank it splashed up and chilled his skin. But as the sun continued to rise he assumed it would get pretty warm. Which, speaking of, the sun was rising fairly quickly.

Lance seemed to read his mind: “The days here are really short and it can get pretty dangerous at night, so I wanted to maximize our time. We have about a varga and a half before we need to go.”

Keith was a fast learner and Lance was a surprisingly good teacher. Fill your pan with gravel and sand and bedrock from the bottom of the stream. Keep the pan slightly under the water and shake vigorously and carefully so that nothing is washed out. Now shake in a gentle circular motion so that the water slips in and out, taking the lighter pieces with it and causing the gravel and such to swirl in the light current—Keith had to practice this a few times before getting the hang of it. Now, back to shaking, but this time with the addition of pulling out the larger rocks. Then, after a few doboshes of patience, carefully letting the water pout over the sides, leaving the debris behind.

“That’s Heleorite!” Lance said, pulling out a miniscule piece of rock. It was silver like the water but when he put it into Keith’s hand it started to glow as if from the inside. It was a warm light washing out from it and Keith smiled.

“Bet I could find more than you,” Lance challenged and dived into the stream, standing knee deep in it and getting splashed so much by the water that he was quickly soaked. 

“Not on my birthday!” Keith followed him into the river.

The Heleorite panning quickly devolved into the two of them splashing each other and getting into a water fight, the pans lost as they floated down the stream. A small pile of the Heleorite they found had been formed on the bank; it was maybe enough to fill two thimbles.

But in the water Keith had finally pinned Lance against the bottom of one of the shallower areas. He wasn’t worried about his boyfriend accidentally drowning but it was deep enough to go over his shoulders and leak onto his chest. Keith’s arms were pinning Lance’s down and their bodies were pressed flush together, legs tangled up in each other. The water continued around them, a Zen rustling that blanketed them.

Keith leaned down, closing the distance between their mouths, and kissed Lance deeply. Lance kissed back and Keith smiled into the other boy’s mouth.

“Happy birthday, Keith,” Lance said, voice heavy with desire, when they broke for air for a moment.

After kissing for a bit more they both realized it was getting close to time for them to leave. They climbed out of the stream soaked through and smiling and definitely more than a little horny. Lance stooped down to pick up the Heleorite they had collected. Inside the ship Lance pointed to the towels and then started tinkering with something in his hands.

Keith rubbed one of the towels through his hair and did his best to dry his body off while keeping his clothes on—it wouldn’t do to get an impromptu video call from the Castle Ship while they were both naked. 

As the ship took off and Keith was tucking himself back amongst the blankets—they would dry eventually they were just blankets—he asked what Lance was doing.

Lance sat next to him on the blankets and showed him; it was a little bottle on a leather cord and inside the bottle, filling it up about three-fourths of the way, was the Heleorite. Lance handed it to Keith and as soon as it touched Keith’s hands it lit up like his own, personal, little sunset. It had all the colors of a desert sunset and he couldn’t help but pull the necklace up to his eye.

“Do you like it?” Lance repeated his question from earlier.

“I love it,” Keith breathed, looping it over his head and pulling it against his heart. He kissed Lance again, as a thank you. “What makes it glow like that? You said it was only in certain circumstances.”

“Well, it’s actually pretty cool. First, it has to be given to a person by someone they love,” and Lance smiled widely at this, “and, second, any time after that exchange, when the owner is near that person, the Heleorite will glow to let them know.”

Keith pulled him in again for another deep kiss. Lance tried to pull away—damn breathing—and Keith hooked his fingers into the wet shirt, keeping them together.

Eventually, because it was already a dizzying kiss and they didn’t need one of them fainting, they did pull apart.

“Happy birthday, Keith.”

“I love you Lance.”

They piled into their cuddle position again.

“Can we go to sleep now?” Keith asked, carding his fingers through Lance’s hair.

“Anything for you, birthday boy.”

And so they did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please check out my other fics or visit my on tumblr (@farbeyondtheuniversethings) and let's chat.


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